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Abstract

Children initially aged 21/2 to 14 years living in Bogalusa, Louisiana (n = 2530) were examined twice, 3 years apart, for fasting serum pre-beta- and beta-lipoprotein cholesterol (beta-LPC) levels. Based on averages of these levels, the children were ranked for pre-beta- and beta-LPC in combinations of extreme quintiles (low-low, high-high) or quartiles (low-high, high-low), n = 388, and were reexamined for serum lipids, lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose tolerance, and anthropometry. Skinfolds were thicker in whites than in blacks except for subscapular skinfold. Children in the high-high stratum were heavier and more obese. The postglucose insulin level was positively correlated with fasting serum triglycerides and pre-beta-LPC. Compared with other strata, high-high strata showed more clustering among half-hour and 1-hour plasma insulin, serum triglycerides and pre-beta-LPC, and trunk skinfolds. We conclude that racial differences in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism occur in all four strata, and that a strong clustering occurs more in the high-high stratum, which may, in part, explain the coincidence of several high cardiovascular risk factor levels observed in the same children. These observations document in free-living children changes of obesity, plasma glucose, and insulin metabolism related to serum lipoproteins that are involved in the early natural history of atherosclerosis.